Point-Wise Current-Affairs & GS (Includes Important PIB Updates) 2020 with Maps & Data- IAS, SSC Etc

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Mar 15, 2020
1 Minamata Convention and Biodiversity [ Health, Environment/Ecology ]
Ratification of Minamata Convention on Mercury. Approved by the Union Cabinet. Convention on Mercury enabling India to become a Party of the Convention. First Conference of the Parties (CoP) under the Minamata Convention took place in Geneva, Switzerland in 2017. Adopted decision
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2 Climate Change-Global Scenario: Green Growth [ Health, Environment/Ecology ]
Green Growth
- OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) released a report.
- Title- “Green Growth Indicators 2017”.
- Highlights-The slow progress in achieving the Green Growth.
- Fostering economic growth and development.
- Ensuring the natural assets continue to
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Mar 12, 2020
1 Climate Change-Global Scenario [ Health, Environment/Ecology ]
Climate Change-Global Scenario
Green Growth
- OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) released a report.
- Title- “Green Growth Indicators 2017”.
- Highlights-The slow progress in achieving the Green Growth.
- Fostering economic growth and development.
- Ensuring
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2 Deep Ocean Mission and Resource Management: Problem of Ghost Gear-Fishing [ Health, Environment/Ecology ]
Drawn up of a 5-year plan to explore the deep ocean. Drawn up by the Central government. Exercise coordination- Ministry of Earth Sciences. The blueprint of “Deep Ocean Mission” has been recently unveiled by the MOES. Mission proposes to explore the deep ocean similar to the spac
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3 Renewable Energy: Pradhan Mantri JI-Van Yojana and Government Interventions [ Health, Environment/Ecology ]
Renewable Energy
Pradhan Mantri JI-Van Yojana
- Approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.
- “Pradhan Mantri JI-VAN (Jaiv Indhan- Vatavaran Anukool fasal awashesh Nivaran) Yojana.
- Provides financial support to Integrated Bio-ethanol projects using lignocellulosic bioma
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4 Dead Zones and Montreal Protocol Assessment [ Health, Environment/Ecology ]
Dead Zones
- The Gulf of Mexico’s annual “dead zone”.
- Likely to persist for decades.
- Hypoxic zones or Oxygen minimum zones (OMZ) are areas in the ocean of such low oxygen concentration.
- Animal life suffocates and dies.
- Most marine life either dies if they are mobile such as fi
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5 World’s Newest Nation: Bougainville and SDG India Index 2019 [ Health, Environment/Ecology ]
World’s Newest Nation: Bougainville
- Largest island of Solomon Islands Archipelago.
- A huge reserve of minerals especially Copper and Gold.
- Bougainville violence began in the late 1980s being triggered by conflict over an enormous opencast copper mine at Panguna.
- The mine was a
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Mar 9, 2020
1 Project WASCAL and World Bank Report on Climate Change [ Health, Environment/Ecology ]
Project WASCAL (West Africa Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land). A regional climate change project. Sponsored by Germany. To combat climate change in West Africa. Is working on more precise rain forecasts for farmers. WASCAL database
Foundation on which our
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2 Global Warming and Climate Change and Global Environment Outlook Report-UNEP 11 [ Health, Environment/Ecology ]
Globe has entered into an Anthropocene era. Humans have begun to impact our environment at the global scale. Variety of Indian bio-diversity would be seriously affected. Populations of more than 40 % of large mammals have declined.
Impacts of Anthropocene Era
- Insect biomass has
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3 National Clean Air Programme and World Air Quality Report 2018 [ Health, Environment/Ecology ]
Launched by the Centre. Objective includes comprehensive mitigation actions for prevention, control and abatement of air pollution. Aims to augment the air quality monitoring network across the country. Strengthening the awareness and capacity building activities. City-specific a
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4 Air Pollution Report-WHO [ Health, Environment/Ecology ]
Report released by WHO on air pollution and child health. Sidelines of its first ever global conference on Air Pollution and Health. About 93 % of the world’s children under the age of 15 (1.8 billion children) breathe polluted air every day. Includes 630 million children under 5
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Mar 4, 2020
1 Pollution: Uranium Contamination in Ground Water and Construction and Demolition Waste [ Health, Environment/Ecology ]
Widespread uranium contamination in groundwater across India. Demand of an urgent response. Groundwater contamination-Must be probed and mapped. Safe sources need to be identified. Over 30 micrograms per litre (mcg/l) of the heavy metal in parts of north-western, southern and sou
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2 Down to Earth (DTE) 1-15 Feb 2020 Part 2 [ Down-to-Earth ]
Arsenic Contamination in Groundwater
- One of the most crippling issues.
- Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) Report-21 states across the country have pockets with arsenic levels higher than the Bureau of Indian Standards’ (BIS) stipulated permissible limit of 0.01 mg/l.
- First of all ars
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3 Down to Earth (DTE) 1-15 Feb 2020 Part 1 [ Down-to-Earth ]
Population Explosion and Stability
- India’s population will most likely surpass that of China.
- India is one the right path towards Stabilization of the population.
- At the time of Independence India’s population was around 350 million.
- Also India became the first developing country to
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Mar 3, 2020
1 Need for a New Antique Law and Anomaly Amendment to the Sports Broadcasting Signals Act [ Policy/Governance, Govt. Schemes/Projects, Bills, Committees/Govt. Bodies ]
- Material culture- Groups such as littérateurs, historians, anthropologists and curators.
- Laws have been framed with the agenda to preserve India’s material culture.
- Rationality at the time of India’s Independence- Doesn’t fit with the country’s requirements.
Concerns
- Unders
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2 Inter-State River Water Disputes Bill, 2019 [ Govt. Schemes/Projects, Bills ]
Was introduced in the Lok Sabha. Amends the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956. Provides for the adjudication of disputes relating to waters of inter-state rivers and river valleys. The central govt. may be requested by the state govt. to refer an inter-state river disput
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3 Grounds of Opposition: Primary Reasons, Tamil Nadu Opposing and Mullaperiyar Issue [ Govt. Schemes/Projects, Bills ]
Acting of the National Dam Safety Authority as the SDSO. Owned by One State and Located in Another. Extends over Multiple States
Primary Reasons
- Owned by a central public sector undertaking.
- The state of Tamil Nadu argues that the Supreme Court in 2014 upheld the rights of Tami
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Mar 2, 2020
1 Dam Safety Bill 2018: Provisions and Bill to Address Issues Concerning Dam Safety Including [ Policy/Governance, Govt. Schemes/Projects, Bills, Committees/Govt. Bodies ]
Recently re-introduced in the Lok Sabha. 36 dam failures so far in the country. A lack of a uniform law and an administrative regime for dam safety.
- Water is listed as a state subject.
- Dam safety bill was first of all introduced in the Lok Sabha in 2010.
Provisions
- To help
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2 Upgradation of Medical Colleges/Hospitals [ Policy/Governance, Health, Govt. Schemes/Projects, Committees/Govt. Bodies ]
Government of India has decided to establish many new medical colleges in different states of the country. Its main aim is to establish district hospitals and medical colleges. Maximum number of medical colleges have been proposed for the state of Rajasthan.
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3 Skill Development Programme Samarth Scheme [ Education, Govt. Schemes/Projects ]
Ministry of Textiles has recently launched a skill development programme name Samarth Scheme. It aims at capacity building and providing skills to the people across all value chains in the textile sector. Under Integrated Skill Development Scheme (ISDS) in the textiles sector, ar
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4 Fast Track Court for Rape Cases [ Science/Technology, Health ]
Government of India has asked to setup 1023 Fast track courts in the country. Their main function is to trail dispose of rape cases and cases under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The total estimated cost to set up FTCs is about Rs. 767.25 crore. It has b
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Feb 24, 2020
1 CSIR Developed Anti-Diabetes Medicine [ Science/Technology, Health ]
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research has developed a scientifically validated herbal product NBRMAP-DB as anti-diabetic formulation. This formulation is effective in treating type 2 diabetes.
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2 Crime Against Children [ Policy/Governance, Govt. Schemes/Projects, Bills, Committees/Govt. Bodies ]
Recently the POCSO Act has been amended to make it more effective. It has been made more proactive in dealing with crimes against children, child abuse in the country. Uttar Pradesh accounts for maximum number of crimes against children, whereas Nagaland constitutes the least amo
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3 C-Sections Spike in Telangana Reasons for Increase in C-Section [ Health, Down-to-Earth ]
UNICEF found in its research paper that Telangana accounts for maximum number of C-section in the country. It accounts for 58 % deliveries through C-section in Telangana alone according to National Family Health Survey report of 2016. It was 75 % among deliveries at private-secto
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Feb 22, 2020
1 Going Online as Leaders’ Programme, Key Characteristic, Outcomes of the Project [ Policy/Governance, Govt. Schemes/Projects, Committees/Govt. Bodies ]
The Union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs recently announced the second phase of the program. The first phase was organized in March 2019. GOAL (Going Online as Leaders) is an initiative of Facebook to make tribal youth self-capable and self-reliant.
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2 National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR) [ Policy/Governance, Newspaper Editorials ]
National Register of Citizens (NRC)
- NRC is to detect or identify the illegal migrants from Bangladesh into Assam after March 24,1971.
- NRC implemented especially for Assam when the NRC list published, 19 million could not prove their Indian citizenship, out of these 19 million about
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Feb 19, 2020
1 Invitation to Participate in Tide Turner Plastic Challenge [ Environment/Ecology ]
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) a leading conservation organization ispleased to introduce the, “Tide Turner Plastic Challenge” in partnershipwith UN environment to engage youth in conversation, action and advocacyaround reducing the use of single-use plastic from our day to day
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2 SRSA Grad Student Paper and New/Young Scholar Research Awards 2020 [ Scholarships ]
SRSA is accepting applications for two awards to be presented during the Awards Banquet at the 2020 SRSA Conference.
(1) the Moriarty Graduate Student Paper Award
- The Southern Regional Science Association awards an annual cash prize ( $1,000 in 2019) to the graduate student sub
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Feb 14, 2020
1 Financial Assistance to Sports Academies [ Policy/Governance, Sports, Govt. Schemes/Projects, Committees/Govt. Bodies ]
The government of India recently has provided financial assistance for the Khelo India Scheme. The assistance is provided to organizations run by the government under Khelo India Scheme to academies run by Sports Authority of India as well as different Non-SAI academies accredite
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2 Worst Marine Heat Wave on Record, Overview, Reasons for Decline [ Down-to-Earth ]
Recently a marine heat wave has swept over the northern Pacific Ocean. This heat wave was hotter since the records began in 1870. It is also known as “the blob”. The wave has raised the sea surface temperatures along the Pacific coast of North America to rise by 1 - 2 degree Cels
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Last Updated:Mar 15, 2020